


The Seven Stages of Grief

by PunishedPyotr



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Crying, Implied Sexual Content, Jealousy, M/M, dick moves, implied dubcon via mind-control, reupload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-24 02:38:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13801620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunishedPyotr/pseuds/PunishedPyotr
Summary: Mantis vastly overestimates Liquid's emotional stability.





	The Seven Stages of Grief

**Author's Note:**

> This was a request from a now-defunct Discord server. :*

There was a certain relationship formula that Psycho Mantis and Liquid Snake shared: Liquid would occasionally, sometimes in passing, develop an infatuation with (or at least an attraction to) someone, and Mantis would get jealous despite the fact that they were _technically_ nothing more than friends/partners. Liquid was _his_ , dammit, and he didn’t like him thinking _too_ much about anyone besides him.

Depending on the severity of the infatuation Mantis would usually harangue Liquid about how sex and romance were selfish, atavistic, disgusting little quirks of human nature that he had no business indulging in — and once he’d irritated Liquid enough that he was no longer in the mood for love (“love”), Mantis would shower him with affection - cuddling, stroking his ego, paying lots of attention to him, gently reminding him that he belonged to him and him alone - and win him back over. And so the status quo would be restored.

It was a well-established formula and Mantis was tired of it.

So when, not long after there was a lot of shuffling with the Genome Army personnel, Liquid happened to catch a glimpse of one of them without the balaclava, and was legitimately surprised by how handsome the soldier was, Mantis decided that enough was _enough_.

* * *

“Oh, boss, have you noticed that Mantis has been acting rather strange lately?”

Liquid looked up from his book at Wolf. “Hm? How do you mean?”

She blinked. “You haven’t noticed anything…? Then, I suppose it was just my imagination.”

“I don’t know about that,” Liquid said, putting down his book and stretching. He was starting to feel restless cooped up on an island like this… “Even I have a hard time keeping track of Mantis’ behavior, he can be so… impulsive sometimes. What has he been up to?”

“Just spending an unusual amount of time around the Genome Army soldiers.”

“Ah. Then, he’s just working out any issues with the brainwashing, I’m sure.”

Wolf shook her head. “No, one in particular.”

“A particularly stubborn soldier?”

“That was what I thought, but Mantis told me I should go ask your opinion of it, and I thought that was… odd of him to say.”

Now Liquid blinked. “That,” he said, “ _is_ odd. He must be up to something.” He stood up. “I suppose I’ll go find out what he’s doing. Thank you for informing me, Wolf.”

“No problem, boss,” she said, then added in an undertone she clearly didn’t care if Liquid heard or not, “I swear, if Mantis just used me to start drama…”

Liquid didn’t reply to that, especially since even he had to admit that Mantis starting drama usually could be blamed on _him_ and his wandering eye. Of course, that hadn’t been the case lately, there actually wasn’t anyone on Shadow Moses he was interested in. A couple attractive people, sure - some of the Genome soldiers weren’t bad-looking with the balaclavas off as long as their personalities were ignored, Campbell’s niece had a nice butt although she was a bit too young for Liquid's tastes, and that lead engineer was sort of adorable if uncomfortably awkward to be around - but after being in a unit with Sniper Wolf for so long, Liquid was more than capable of being around attractive people without being actually being _attracted_ to them enough for Mantis to get huffy about it.

He found Mantis hanging about with that one surprisingly handsome blond soldier, the one with a ‘J’ on his balaclava. Liquid knew without asking that this was the one he’d been spending a suspicious amount of time with, according to Wolf.

“What have you been up to, Mantis?” he said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

“Ah, Liquid,” Mantis said, turning around to face him, “there is someone I’d like you to get to know. This is Jeff.”

“Um, it’s Johnny, actually,” said the soldier, and both Liquid and Mantis thoroughly ignored him.

“He is my lover.”

**STAGE ONE: SHOCK**

Liquid’s mind balked at the word ‘lover’. He blinked, then scratched the side of his head. “I must have misheard you just now, Mantis—“

“Oh no,” Mantis said, “you heard me right.”

There was a long pause as Liquid tried to process this. It really wasn’t working. “Well,” he said, his mouth feeling strangely numb, “I suppose that explains why you’ve been spending so much time with him.”

“Yes.”

**STAGE TWO: DENIAL**

Again, a long pause. Liquid felt oddly like this was a dream, the kind where inexplicable, completely illogical things happen but you never once question it and everything feels perfectly natural and normal. Except this didn’t feel natural or normal, in fact, it didn’t feel like _anything_. Liquid didn’t know how to react to this, so he just _wasn’t_.

This wasn’t happening, right?

“What is so difficult to understand?” Mantis said in almost a mocking tone, “everyone takes on a lover at some point in their lives, no?”

Liquid hid his wince. No. _He_ never had, because Mantis had never allowed it. That was a big part of the reason why this was so unbelievable.

He cleared his throat. “Well,” he said, in a much more put-together voice than his current mental state, “er… congratulations, I suppose. I… hope you two are happy together for… as long as this manages to last.”

“Mm.”

“Thank you,” said Johnny, with a touch of confusion.

Liquid turned and walked away without further comment, his movements stiff, his brain trying feverishly to work out what the hell just happened.

Mantis? A lover? _Mantis??_

_What???_

He’d almost started to think he’d somehow hallucinated the whole thing when he found, that evening, that Mantis had introduced Johnny to everyone _else_ as his lover, with apparent sincerity each time, too.

Liquid decided to just go to bed early.

The other members of FOXHOUND (sans Mantis, who was as far as anyone knew off canoodling with Johnny somewhere) all met in a breakroom to discuss this. (Sort of met. Ocelot had already been in there, going over some papers, but he didn’t object to everyone else sitting down with tea or coffee, according to their preference.)

“Mantis has got to be up to something,” Wolf said.

“That is obvious,” Raven said.

“And we have got to do _something_ about it.”

**STAGE THREE: BARGAINING**

“I don’t think any of us believe that Mantis actually cares about whathisface,” Octopus said, then took a pointed sip of his coffee. He was preternaturally good at reading people, thanks a lifetime of imitating others so well their own friends and family were fooled, but that skill wasn’t needed to know _that_. “He’s just after a reaction from the boss somehow.”

“Jealousy,” Raven guessed.

Wolf nodded. “The question is, why?”

“Considering how often he gets jealous of the boss,” Octopus said, “I’d say this is just a form of petty revenge.”

Raven drank some of his tea and put down the cup. “Maybe we should let this run its course.”

“Hmmm.” Wolf also drank her tea, pensively. “But you know Mantis. I find it hard to believe that, if he were simply getting back at the boss for something, he would participate in a charade of a relationship when there is almost nothing he hates more. This is going awfully far, even for him.”

“Clearly whatever plan he has requires him being in a charade of a relationship,” Raven said.

“Now that I think about it,” Octopus said, “I don’t think the boss has done anything in particular lately to set him off. You’d think if this were just payback for all the times the boss has made _him_ jealous, Mantis wouldn’t do something like this unless the boss were chasing after some tail again.”

“True,” Wolf said.

“Perhaps it was a passing thought,” Raven said.

Octopus snorted into his coffee. “Hell of an overreaction. Maybe it’s a different response he’s after?”

Wolf put a finger to her lower lip thoughtfully. “They have been together a very long time,” she said, “but not ‘together’ together, no matter how close they obviously are and how clearly and openly they care for each other.”

“What are you implying?” Raven said.

“If the boss had feelings for Mantis - which, to be frank, he plainly does - then Mantis would know, no? Yet they have never been in an official relationship, so it would seem that those feelings are not on the table. I suppose Mantis has been waiting for the boss to put them on the table himself, and after all this time he is frustrated and trying to make Liquid jealous - as a catalyst for him to confess his feelings.”

Octopus drank more of his coffee. “That could be it. But since Mantis would already know about the boss’ feelings, if he’s frustrated, why not just bring it up himself? He’s certainly publicly needled the boss about all sorts of things before, so I imagine nothing’s off-limits in private…”

“Also,” Raven said, “if the boss _has_ feelings for Mantis, would he not just admit to them, openly? He is rather a rather upfront person.”

Wolf was silent for a moment, sipping her tea, then shook her head. “I know both of them a little better than you two,” she said, since she had indeed known the two of them longer than Raven or Octopus had, having joined FOXHOUND before either of them, “Liquid is very bad with handling emotion, especially non-negative ones, and he is even worse at communicating. He gets nervous when trying to talk about his ‘softer’ feelings, to the point where he simply doesn’t. So I find it plausible that Mantis would wait for the boss to decide to confess on his own, because for him it would be a very courageous act.”

Octopus nodded absently. “I suppose that would make sense.”

“All of this is assuming that Mantis would _tolerate_ Liquid having feelings for him,” Ocelot spoke up for the first time.

“He _is_ going this far to make Liquid jealous,” Wolf pointed out. “Why would he do that if he did not accept and even reciprocate those feelings?”

“That’s just circular logic.”

“I find it strange,” Raven said, ignoring Ocelot and Wolf’s exchange, “that the same man who fully intends to combat fighter jets with a helicopter would be frightened off by _his own emotions_.” Wolf shrugged.

“He’s also pretty out of touch with said emotions,” Octopus said, also ignoring Ocelot. “If he had feelings for Mantis, would he even be _aware_ of that?”

“Well,” Wolf said, “perhaps the jealousy is intended as a catalyst for him to _realize_ his feelings instead of confess them. Then I suppose Mantis can confront him about them himself.”

“The point is that Mantis is doing this because he wants something out of the boss,” Raven said. “We can all agree on this?” Wolf and Octopus nodded. “What are we going to do about it?”

“Can’t we just leave them to their own devices?” Octopus said.

“Not with the revolution coming up,” Wolf said, “we cannot afford for the boss to be distracted like this.”

“I agree,” Raven said, “this situation needs to be resolved as soon as possible. The boss has more important things to focus on right now.”

“Actually,” Ocelot said, “for the time being there’s nothing for us to do but wait. Preparations are as complete as they’re going to get for now - the boss can be as distracted as he likes until our VIP guests get here, and that’s not until the 24th.”

“The 24th will come sooner than it seems,” Raven said gravely.

“So,” Wolf said, “we need to figure out what exactly it is Mantis _wants_ from the boss.”

“Or, more specifically,” Octopus said, “we need to get the _boss_ to figure out what Mantis wants from him.”

The next morning, Liquid was, somewhat understandably, in a foul mood, his temper shorter than usual and his normal talkativeness completely gone in favor of glowering at everyone. Perfect time for Wolf to casually approach him and strike up a conversation about Mantis and Johnny.

“Boss, do you know _why_ Mantis is… dating… that soldier?”

“No,” Liquid said irritably.

“Have you thought that maybe it has something to do with you?”

Liquid blinked at her. “Well, if Mantis is trying to _annoy_ me,” he said, rather sarcastically, “then it’s _certainly_ working.”

“No, I do not mean… hm. That was a serious question, boss.”

“What _would_ it have to do with me?” Liquid said, “despite the persistent rumors, Mantis and I aren’t…” he trailed off, then frowned. “Perhaps he _is_ trying to tell me something here.”

“Yes?” Wolf urged.

“That… we never could, because even someone as useless as _Sasaki_ is better than me.”

**STAGE FOUR: GUILT**

“Er,” Wolf said, “that seems… unlikely.”

Liquid put a hand to his mouth, his eyebrows drawing together, clearly starting to get upset. “Damn… what does Sasaki have that I don’t? Besides normal genes and being well-adjusted. He’s literally the worst soldier on the base!”

“Maybe… that is the point Mantis is trying to make?” Wolf said.

“Of course it’s the point he’s trying to make, there’s no way Mantis genuinely _likes_ him. …is there?” he added, eyes wide.

Wolf didn’t like where this conversation was going. She, like the rest of FOXHOUND, was more than happy to let Mantis deal with Liquid’s recurrent severe self-esteem issues instead of her. “Hmm. Well, maybe he does, and it really isn’t anything to do with you.”

“…I’m not sure if that’s worse or not.”

“Boss. You should just go ask Mantis directly what he sees in that man.”

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“I don’t want to,” Liquid said finally.

Wolf grabbed his shoulders, turned him around, and started pushing him down the hallway. “The rest of us do not want you sulking—“

“I am not sulking!”

“-so you are going to go work this out with Mantis. I am sure he will be able to come up with a satisfactory reason for _why Sasaki_.”

But Wolf didn’t know where Mantis was and Liquid managed to give her the slip anyway when she took her eyes off of him for five seconds (“Damn stealth operatives,” she muttered). So she hunted them both down - she probably should have expected to find Mantis holed up by himself in the commander’s room - and had Raven physically drag a loudly protesting Liquid there. Then they closed the door.

There was an awkward silence.

“I see you’ve been handling this badly,” Mantis said dryly.

“I…” Liquid clammed up. God _damn_ it Mantis knew _exactly_ how badly he was handing this, and here he was probably smirking at him under his gas mask, the arse. Liquid wasn’t sure if he wanted to yell at him or burst into tears. “What… what is it you even see in Sasaki, anyway?”

“He is handsome,” Mantis said, “and he has a large… _heart_.”

Liquid stared at him.

Holy shit.

Mantis had passed him over for _the shallowest fucking reasons ever_. Liquid wasn’t even good enough for something as inane as his body?! And that was the _one part_ of himself he didn’t actually have a problem with!!

Just how much of a worthless piece of garbage _was_ he?

Mantis didn’t respond at all to that entire internal monologue. “I see,” Liquid said at length, then turned on his heel and walked out. He didn’t pay any mind to Wolf and Raven (and Octopus, who wasn’t there before) who had probably just been listening at the door, and stalked off to the room in the barracks that he’d claimed as his.

He felt terrible.

He decided to go to bed early again.

“At least we know he’s getting enough sleep,” said Ocelot.

Liquid was late getting up the next day. No one really minded, considering there was nothing for him to really _do_ right now besides ensure none of the scientists got too suspicious of the Genome Army, a role very easily filled by Ocelot and his silver tongue - or, in the case of the lead engineer, Wolf and her tits. So when Liquid finally dragged himself out of bed around noon, still feeling very sorry for himself, no one really commented on it.

_You’re still upset?_ came Mantis’ voice into his head.

_No_ , he thought, knowing full well that it was utterly pointless to try to lie to Mantis. _I am perfectly fine with you fooling around with Sasaki_.

_I do not know why you even_ try _, boss, I would know that you are lying even if I weren’t psychic. Perhaps we could talk it out without you storming out of the room…?_

_Fine. Where are you?_

_The commander’s room, but I am a little busy right now. Give me twenty minutes… no, thirty._

Like hell. Liquid marched towards the commander’s room, threw open the door, and—-

Mantis was sitting on the desk with his legs spread and Johnny sitting between them. He had one leg hooked over the back of Johnny’s neck and his hand resting atop his head.

Liquid squawked and covered his eyes. “Oh my _god_.”

“I _told_ you not to come now,” Mantis said as Johnny jumped up, face red.

“I thought— I didn’t think- oh my god. I’m going. Goodbye.” He closed the door quickly and tried not to think about what he just walked in on.

He did not succeed.

“He’s letting him suck his dick,” he whispered to himself, staring blankly ahead. “He’s letting _Johnny fucking Sasaki_ suck his _dick_. What the _fuck_.”

**STAGE FIVE: ANGER**

Almost pulling his hair out in frustration, he stomped back to his room and proceeded to completely tear the place apart, pointless destruction for its own sake. He didn’t realize he was screaming incoherently, but no one poked their head in the door to ask him what was wrong, why was he yelling, so it didn’t really matter either way.

While he knew the whole thing was, in all likelihood, Mantis’ idea, he couldn’t help but place the blame on Johnny, directing what anger wasn’t saved for _himself_ at him. Yes, he was considering killing him - strongly. But it probably wouldn’t be good for the Genome Army’s morale. Probably.

Then again, Johnny wasn’t even _part_ of the Genome Army, he was just some asshole that they couldn’t refuse his transfer in without things looking suspicious. He wasn’t even supposed to _be_ here. So maybe the Genome soldiers actually wouldn’t care if Liquid brought him out back and shot him.

Plus the whole transfer thing was weird in the first place. Suppose Johnny was a spy? It could happen. That would justify killing him…

No, if he were a spy, Mantis would have already taken care of it, or at least pointed it out. Unless he were protecting him—? No, no, why would he do that? Surely he didn’t actually _care_ about Johnny, surely their so-called “relationship” was exactly as shallow as Mantis had made it sound.

But Mantis _wasn’t shallow_. He was a fucking psychic, for God’s sake, he was always focused more on the mind, he couldn’t help it, and Johnny didn’t have two fucking brain cells to rub together. And Mantis was asexual, goddammit! Why was he letting Johnny suck his dick?? Why?! Why!!

Liquid spat out a feather and stared down at the torn-apart pillow in his hands. Looking at it objectively, there was no way Johnny was a spy. Mantis wouldn’t suffer him to live if he were, and he would certainly know because Mantis wouldn’t tolerate him if he couldn’t read his mind. So, at least in that sense, Johnny was safe. Why the _hell_ Mantis had hooked up with him was an entirely different matter, but…

Wait, maybe he _was_ a spy and Mantis’ whole plan with the relationship thing really did have nothing to do with Liquid, and he was just lulling Johnny into a false sense of security so he could kill him. Yes! That made perfect sense!

…

Liquid threw the pillow to the side, growling. No, it didn’t. Mantis would never do that, he wasn’t that patient and it would have been a completely unnecessary move anyway. If Johnny were a spy then he would already be dead.

Which meant Liquid was back to square one as far as finding a justification to kill Johnny went.

…fine then. He just wouldn’t kill him directly. _Liquid_ could be patient when he wanted to, and he could patiently wait until the takeover actually got underway and Solid Snake was inevitably sent in, and Liquid could just _conveniently_ put Johnny directly in Snake’s line of fire.

Yes. Perfect.

_Why the hell was Mantis letting Johnny suck his dick_.

Snarling at nothing, tearing at his hair again, Liquid looked around his room. It was an absolute wreck, his belongings strewn everywhere, feathers and bits of cloth all over the place, nothing he couldn’t clean up or order someone to clean up for him. His eyes fell on the totally gutted pillow he had just been holding.

Dammit. That was his only pillow.

His bottom lip trembled. Just another example of how much of a fuckup he was, eh? A stupid, worthless, inferior failure at everything from keeping his other half from ignoring him in favor of some fool to keeping his _only bloody pillow_ intact and functional as a pillow.

**STAGE SIX: DEPRESSION**

Couldn’t he catch a break, just once in his life? Just _once?_ He’d thought he had with Mantis, and then off he went getting his cock sucked by Johnny Sasaki.

Sometimes he wondered if God was specifically out to get him because he wasn’t one of His creations. It seemed likely.

Ocelot walked into the commander’s room. Wherever Johnny was, it wasn’t here, but Mantis was - lounging in the chair behind the desk with his eyes closed. Napping? Hard to tell with that man. Ocelot stood in front of the desk with his arms crossed.

“You realize that Liquid has been lying outside in the snow for three hours now, don’t you?”

“He is fine,” Mantis said without opening his eyes. "Let him get it out of his system, he will get over it."

“He’s having a complete meltdown. Go collect him before he gets frostbite.”

Mantis stood up, sighing. Ocelot watched him leave the room, his expression stern enough to annoy Mantis, but he probably _did_ have a point. Mantis grabbed his trenchcoat and headed outside.

Liquid could be so dramatic sometimes.

“Get up,” Mantis said dryly, looking down at him.

“No.”

“You have already been out here for three hours, get up.”

“I don’t want to.”

“It is well below freezing, if you fall ill then that will be the best case scenario. Get up, Eli.”

Liquid finally opened his eyes, glaring at him for the use of his given name. Mantis rolled his eyes.

“If you do not get up then I’ll go back inside and tell everyone that you cried for an hour and half when you first got out here.”

Liquid sat up stiffly. “It’s _your_ fault, you know,” he whined.

“I know. We need to talk.” He had to help Liquid stand - his whole body was as cold as ice, tears frozen to his cheeks, his face red and his lips chapped. He’d fully intended to just lie out there until someone forced him back inside, too, with no intention of coming in out of the cold himself if no one ever did… that was worrying…

Perhaps Mantis had made a mistake.

Liquid let Mantis escort him back to the barracks, forgoing Liquid’s room since it was a disaster and instead taking him to his own, where he very matter-of-factly stripped off his snow-soaked clothes - leaving him only in boxers and socks, and very embarrassed - and pointedly draped three blankets over him and set him on the bed. Then he sat next to him.

Liquid stared at his lap. “So.”

“Hm.”

“You… you said we needed to talk.”

“Yes. About your reaction to my relationship with Jeff.”

“Johnny. You keep getting his name wrong.” He bit his lip. “You passed me up for someone whom you don’t even care enough about to get his name right, even though you can read minds.”

“Eli…”

“Why? I don’t understand, Mantis. What does he have that I don’t? Why aren’t I good enough for you??”

“Eli, I did not intend for you to react this way.”

“No, i-it’s fine. I just don’t understand it.”

Mantis sighed, and brushed his hand through Liquid’s hair, gently combing melted snow out of it with his fingers. “You really don’t. I do not care about that soldier at all, actually. The whole relationship was just put on for show.”

**STAGE SEVEN: ~~ACCEPTANCE~~ THE TRUTH**

“…what?”

He tilted his head. “Without the soldier’s consent, really. I planted a few ideas in his mind so I could play along and… get a reaction from you.”

“You… you… what?” Liquid stared at him, blinking in confusion. This was kind of a lot to process, considering how strained he already felt.

Mantis kept petting his hair. “Yes. I was only trying to make you jealous. It did not occur to me that you would take it as some sort of insult.”

“But- but _Sasaki_. Why him-?”

“You thought he was handsome.”

Liquid was silent for a moment, then scrunched in on himself. “That was a _passing thought_ , Mantis, I didn’t even remember it until just now.”

“I… know. I overreacted.”

There was a long pause.

“I am sorry,” Mantis said.

Liquid shook his head. “Mantis, y-you…”

“No. I am. I overreacted to a harmless thought of yours, and I miscalculated how you would respond to me pretending to be in a relationship with someone other than you - especially someone objectively worse than you. I should have known that you would interpret it as me implying that you were inferior even to him, but it did not occur to me. I am sorry.”

Liquid almost felt like crying again.

Mantis pre-emptively shushed him, moving closer to him and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “Forgive me?”

Liquid leaned his head against Mantis, slumping against his chest. “You’re a prick,” he muttered, “I really thought you’d decided you didn’t like me anymore.”

“I was too wrapped up in my own jealousy. I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve wanted to have shallow flings in spite of my protests…”

“But you know there’s no one I’d ever love more than you,” Liquid mumbled into his chest, “you _know_ that. I _don’t_. I don’t know what’s going on your head anymore, Mantis, I haven’t since we were teens.”

Mantis cringed. He had a point. Mantis took knowing every thought and feeling that ran through Liquid’s head for granted so much that he forgot it only worked one way. “I am sorry, Eli,” he said again, rubbing his back through the blankets. “I was not thinking.”

“Prick.”

“Hush.” Mantis rested his chin on top of Liquid’s head, still rubbing his back. “Eli, I always tell you you are mine…”

“Yes…?”

“That still holds true. You belong to me. You alone. No one else.”

“…and Sasaki?”

“I told you, I couldn’t care less about him. I have already released my hold on his mind.” _And no, I did not let him perform oral sex on me_ , he added silently, and Liquid snorted, which was a good sign. “Eli?”

“Mmm?”

“Have you forgiven me yet?”

“I’m going to need a lot more cuddling before I’ll forgive you for this, Mantis.”

Mantis laughed softly, nuzzling him. That was exactly the answer he was expecting.

And so the status quo was restored, and Mantis realized with a trace of dry irritation that the whole interlude had ended with him showering Liquid with affection anyway.

Ah well.

He never really got tired of _that_.

**Author's Note:**

> (any and all comments will be forewarded to aireyv! i will either copy/paste their reply to me or they will reply on their own account! have a nice day!!! if you have any questions, just ask!!!!)


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